There is a case where user information registered to a plurality of providers is used to extract users which match a predetermined condition, and an advertisement message is sent to the extracted users. FIG. 24 is a block diagram illustrating an example of configuration of a generally-available grouping system which extracts users on the basis of user information managed by a plurality of providers.
In this case, the grouping processing is a processing for adopting a set of a plurality of users as a population, and extracting a set of users which matches a certain condition from the population.
The grouping system illustrated in FIG. 24 includes a requesting apparatus 1100, a condition processing apparatus 1200, a user information holding apparatus A 1300, and a user information holding apparatus B 1400, and is connected to a user terminal 1500 owned by each user via a communication network. It should be noted that the user information holding apparatus A 1300 and the user information holding apparatus B 1400 are managed by different providers.
The user information holding apparatus A 1300 holds age information of users and the user information holding apparatus B 1400 holds position information of users. The requesting apparatus 1100 transmits a request to the condition processing apparatus 1200 to transmit an advertisement message to users according to ages and positions. Thereafter, the condition processing apparatus 1200 groups users, using the age information of the users which is user information held in the user information holding apparatus A 1300 and the position information of the users which is user information held in the user information holding apparatus B 1400, and distributes an advertisement message to the user terminals 1500.
FIG. 25 is a sequence diagram illustrating an operation of a generally-available grouping system for extracting users.
First, the requesting apparatus 1100 transmits, to the condition processing apparatus 1200, a grouping condition for requesting grouping of users whose “age is 10 to 19 years old” and “position is Tamachi” and the content of an advertisement message which is to be sent to that group, and requests advertisement distribution (step S1-1).
The condition processing apparatus 1200 requests the user information holding apparatus A 1300 to obtain each piece of the age information of the users in order to evaluate the received grouping condition (step S1-2). The user information holding apparatus A 1300 transmits each piece of age information of the users to the condition processing apparatus 1200 (step S1-3). Likewise, the condition processing apparatus 1200 requests the user information holding apparatus B 1400 to obtain each piece of the position information of the users (step S1-4). The condition processing apparatus 1200 receives the position information transmitted from the user information holding apparatus B 1400 (step S1-5).
Then, the condition processing apparatus 1200 uses the received age information and the received position information to evaluate the grouping condition, and groups users whose “age is 10 to 19 years old” and “position is Tamachi” (step S1-6). In other words, the condition processing apparatus 1200 extracts the users. Then, the condition processing apparatus 1200 transmits the advertisement message to the user terminals 1500 of the grouped users (step S1-7).
In the generally-available grouping system using user information possessed by a plurality of providers, the user information possessed by each provider is given to a provider that performs grouping process, and that provider performs the grouping process. In such case, a strong relationship of trust is built by, for example, making a contract between providers in advance, so as to prevent leakage to the outside or abuse of user information, which is exchanged with each other.
Liberty Alliance Web Service Framework described in Non Patent Literature 1 (hereinafter referred to as Liberty-WSF) is known as another method for giving user information of a certain provider to another provider, among providers trusted by each other.
In the Liberty-WSF, there are a Web Service Provider having user information and a Web Service Consumer obtaining the user information, and the Liberty-WSF has such mechanism that the Web Service Consumer gives the user's authentication information to the Web Service Provider, so that the user information possessed by the Web Service Provider is transmitted to the Web Service Consumer.
Patent Literature 1 describes a system for extracting users based on registered user information and transmitting advertisement information to the extracted users.